The German government has taken another step toward reducing bureaucracy and modernizing state administration, with officials expressing confidence that the effort is on track. Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger of the CDU, who holds cross-departmental responsibility for the initiative, stated on Wednesday that the coalition has kept its promises on cutting red tape. According to Wildberger, more than 40 measures have already been implemented in recent months, together expected to save businesses and citizens over ten billion euros annually.
Wednesday's meeting marked the second gathering of the so-called "Entlastungskabinett," or relief cabinet, a body set up specifically to identify and approve bureaucracy-reduction measures. This session alone is expected to deliver roughly 600 million euros in annual savings for citizens and companies, with decisions touching on healthcare digitization, mandatory safety checks for office appliances such as electric kettles and coffee machines, and the environmental sticker requirement for electric vehicles.
Healthcare accounts for the bulk of the newly announced relief. The cabinet approved a law that will phase out the paper-based doctor's referral slip by September 2029, replacing it with a fully digital process and eliminating the last remaining analog step in the referral system.
The plan also calls for further development of the electronic patient record, known as the ePA, along with improved use of health data across the system. Hospitals are also set to benefit, as obstacles to the use of modern cloud infrastructure in clinical settings are to be removed. Officials estimate the healthcare measures alone will cut bureaucratic costs by about 445 million euros.
Health Minister Nina Warken of the CDU said the electronic patient record has become established in everyday care but remains significantly underused. Medical practices, hospitals, and pharmacies have been required to use the ePA since October 1, 2025, and the record is now set to be expanded with new applications, including a digital vaccination overview with reminders for upcoming shots.
Health insurers will also be permitted to add further offerings of their own to the record. Warken wants these additions to make the ePA more attractive and turn it into what she called a constant companion and a gateway into the healthcare system. Eventually, patients should also be able to book medical appointments directly through the ePA.
The broader goal is to lay the groundwork for a digitally supported primary care model, in which general practitioners serve as the first point of contact and patients see specialists only after an initial referral, a system intended to reduce unnecessary visits and lower costs.
Health insurers welcomed the legislation. The GKV-Spitzenverband, representing statutory health insurers, called it an important step and praised the first moves toward establishing primary care structures, while the AOK federal association's chief executive, Carola Reimann, said the law opens many new doors to better-managed care. Physicians were more critical.
Klaus Reinhardt, chairman of the Hartmannbund doctors' association, warned that extensive data use combined with complex digital structures and growing centralized oversight risks eroding doctors' professional autonomy, and called for significant revisions as the bill moves through parliament.
The government also agreed to scale back mandatory periodic safety testing of electrical equipment and installations, a rule that has long drawn criticism for its reach. Until now, electrical devices ranging from office coffee machines and kettles to large industrial installations had to be inspected for safety and function every two years in offices and annually in workshops, with each item marked by a compliance sticker.
Going forward, such testing will only be required where there is an actual potential hazard. Labor Minister Bärbel Bas of the SPD confirmed that, in practice, this means extra inspections for items like kettles and charging cables in ordinary office settings will no longer be necessary.
The Federal Employment Agency is also being made more digital. Unemployed individuals will be able to reach binding agreements with their local Jobcenter by email rather than in person, and mandatory appointments at the agency can be conducted digitally via video call. More broadly, people applying for benefits or reporting changes in their circumstances will be able to do so entirely online, and counseling or job-placement meetings can take place by video call from home.
The Transport Ministry contributed simplified rules for taxi and rental car operators, plans to digitize further administrative procedures, and moves to harmonize inconsistent holiday driving bans for trucks across states. Owners of electric vehicles will also no longer need to obtain the green environmental sticker required to enter low-emission zones in major cities, a rule that previously applied even though electric cars produce no local emissions.
Since the first relief cabinet meeting in early November, the government says it has introduced measures worth a combined 10.4 billion euros in annual savings. Wildberger's stated goal is to cut bureaucratic costs by 25 percent, or 16 billion euros a year, by the end of the current legislative period in 2029.
Earlier measures already adopted include faster approval procedures, reforms to driving school training, legal prioritization of mobile and fiber-optic network expansion, and automatic payment of child benefits. Wildberger described the reforms as an expression of a new self-conception of the state: lean, efficient, and placing greater trust in the personal responsibility of businesses and citizens.
The figures have drawn scrutiny. The vast majority of the 10.4 billion euros in claimed relief comes from a single measure: the repeal of the previous coalition's heating law, valued at 7.7 billion euros.
Removing climate requirements for new heating systems is meant to make modernization projects faster and simpler, but government sources acknowledge the new building modernization law could also introduce additional costs, since it requires greater use of green fuels such as bio-heating oil, expenses that cannot currently be quantified given uncertainty over future fuel prices.
The National Regulatory Control Council, an independent advisory body specializing in bureaucracy reduction, expressed doubt that businesses, administrations, and citizens will actually notice the promised relief, citing the heating law repeal among its concerns, and called on more ministries to contribute substantively.
Business representatives pressed for quicker implementation after the cabinet's decisions. Holger Schwannecke, Secretary General of the Central Association of German Skilled Crafts, said far more is needed and far more is possible. Digital industry association Bitkom noted that implementation has begun on 69 percent of the government's 222 key bureaucracy-reduction and modernization projects, but only nine percent have actually been completed.
Bitkom President Ralf Wintergerst said consistent and rapid implementation remains the best proof of a capable state.
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